Pastrnak scores twice early in Bruins win against Lightning

TAMPA -- David Pastrnak scored two goals early for the Boston Bruins in a 5-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Brad Marchand also scored twice for the Bruins (18-11-2), who have won four of their past five games. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves.
"It's always fun to play the best teams in the League, because you really have to be sharp and be on point with everything you're doing," Ullmark said. "It's a test of your game and tests your mental fortitude. That's what we play for. We play to be the best, and if you want to be that, you have to beat the best."
Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning (23-9-5), who have lost four of their past six games (2-3-1). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves.
"They were better than us tonight," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We've played them twice now, it's 1-1 (won 3-2 in overtime on Dec. 4). They probably … they were better than us in Boston and they were better than us tonight. We had some chances, but when you're down by four, it's a tough road back."
Pastrnak gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 1:11 of the first period with a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that deflected off Andrej Sustr's skate.

He then extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:10, kicking the rebound of Taylor Hall's initial shot to his stick and shooting into an open net.
"He's such a dominant player, I think he holds himself to a high standard," Marchand said of Pastrnak. "He wants to be a difference-maker every night. He's such a special talent. We want to see him do well. It's great to see him have a game like tonight. He steps up in big situations all the time."
Marchand scored 26 seconds into the second period to make it 3-0. He redirected a slap pass from Mike Reilly past Vasilevskiy's glove near the right post.
"It feels good, but I don't think they played their best game tonight," Marchand said. "We've played them plenty in the past, we know when they're on and when they're not. So we have to take it as a grain of salt, but it's definitely something we can continue to build on. We've been a lot better recently. Ever since the Christmas break we've been playing really good hockey."
Anton Blidh pushed the lead to 4-0 at 14:54 of the second, scoring short side from the left circle after Oskar Steen outmuscled Cal Foote for a loose puck.
Palat scored 24 seconds into the third period to make it 4-1, converting on a one-timer after Erik Cernak knocked him the puck with one hand on his stick.
"It wasn't ideal to allow the early goal," Cernak said. "This was not our night with winning 50-50 battles. We weren't sharp enough in our zone."

Point cut it to 4-2 at 11:20, but Marchand shot into an empty net at 17:11 for the 5-2 final.
"There was a lot to like," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I think our puck battles … I think a lot of goals were generated by winning pucks to the wall, playing north, minimizing mistakes in terms of them getting easy chances. I guess that's what I liked best about our game, we played a hard to play against type of style tonight."
NOTES:Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (lower body) missed his second straight game. … Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh was a late scratch and is day to day with a lower-body injury. … Bruins forward Nick Foligno left the game in the first period with an apparent leg injury. Cassidy said he will probably miss their game at the Washington Capitals on Monday. … Palat has scored in three straight games (four goals, one assist). … Point has scored 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past seven games. … Hall had two assists and has scored six points (two goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak.